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Illinois Fire Service Institute

Illinois Fire Service Institute
Helping Firefighters do their work through Training, Education, Information, and Research

Online Tutorial

I. SEARCHING

The IFLODD homepage contains the Basic Search functions for the database. All search fields are optional.

Users can search for specific firefighters by entering the name in the Last Name and/or First Name search fields or
can select their search criteria using the Agency, Type of Firefighter, Rank, Sex, Age Range, and
Year of Death search fields. Searches can be narrowed by selecting the Only retrieve records with images or the
Only retrieve records with audio search fields.

Users can also access firefighter records by clicking on names listed in the Today’s Line of Duty Deaths feature or can
retrieve every record in the database by selecting Browse All Records.

The Advanced Search page lets users perform a more precise search of the IFLODD database using both Firefighter Information and Incident Information.
All search fields are optional.

Users can search as many or as few fields as they choose, as there are no limits on search combinations, but please note that searches narrow
as more search fields are selected.

In addition to the firefighter search fields replicated from the Basic Search function on the IFLODD homepage, users can select their search
criteria using the Major Incident Name, Incident City, and Incident State.
Users can also select any combination of Year, Month, and Day in the Date of Birth, Date of Death,
and Date of Incident fields, or select the Time of Incident.

For the Cause of Death, Nature of Death, Attributes of Death, Type of Duty, Incident Location Type,and Incident Attributes fields,
users can click on the check boxes to select their search criteria. Selecting more than one option in these fields will retrieve records
that meet all search criteria. (For example, selecting both “Asphyxiation” and “Burns” as the Nature of Death
for a search will retrieve records for both firefighters who died of asphyxiation and firefighters who died of burns, and will not only retrieve
records for firefighters who died of both asphyxiation and burns.)

For image searches, users can search the Title, Author/Creator, Keyword, or Date Range fields by entering their search criteria or they can
select existing subject terms from the Subject field. For audio searches, users can search the Keyword field by entering their search criteria or
they can select existing terms from the Narrator and Subject fields.

Users can search as many or as few fields as they choose, as there are no limits on search combinations, but please note that searches narrow as
more search fields are selected.

The Browse by County page features an interactive map that lets users search the database based on the county where firefighters died.

Users can search for firefighters from an individual county by clicking their mouse on that county on the interactive map or by selecting the
county name from the list on the left side of the screen.

II. SEARCH RESULTS

For Basic, Advanced, or Browse by County searches, the search results page lists the firefighter records retrieved by a user's search.
To access a firefighter's record, click on his or her name.

The Name, Agency, and Year of Death are displayed for every firefighter record retrieved by a search. Users can sort
their search results by any of these fields by clicking on the column headings.

For searches that involve the Type of Duty and Incident Attributes fields, the Search Results page also links to the IFSI
Library’s Online Public Access Catalog. By clicking on the link on the left side of the screen, users can search for library materials
related to their query.

For Image searches, the search results page displays thumbnails of the retrieved images along with the image Title.

To access the Image Record, click on the image thumbnail or the Title.

For Audio searches, the search results page displays the Title and Abstract of the oral history interview recordings retrieved by the search.

To access the Audio Record, click on the Title.

III. FIREFIGHTER RECORDS

Each firefighter has an individual record in the IFLODD database.

Each record indicates the firefighter’s Name and Agency, and, when available, also displays the Rank,
Type of Firefighter, Age Range, Gender, Date of Birth, Date of Death, Cause of Death, Nature of Death, Attributes of Death, Type of Duty,
Incident City, Incident State, Date of Incident, Time of Incident, Incident Location Type, and Incident Attributes.

Within an individual firefighter record, users can browse other firefighter records by clicking on the content of the following database fields:
Agency, Rank, Type of Firefighter, Age Range, Gender, Cause of Death, Nature of Death, Attributes of Death, Type of Duty, Incident City,
Incident State, Incident Location Type, and Incident Attributes.

Some firefighter records have also been enriched by including an Incident Summary, Images, and Audio. To view an image,
click on that image’s thumbnail in the image box in the firefighter record. To listen to audio, click on the link in the audio box in the firefighter record.

IV. IMAGE RECORDS

Every image in the database, including digitized photographs, records/reports, and other materials, has an individual image record.

The Image Record also lists the image’s Title, Author/Creator, Date, Copyright, and contains a Description.

Users can read transcripts of digitized handwritten documents by clicking on the “Transcript” link in the bottom right corner of the image.

V. AUDIO RECORDS

The Audio Record contains an audio recording of an oral history interview in mp3 format and an interview transcript in pdf format.
The Audio Record also lists the Title, Date, Narrator, Interviewer, Format, Time Duration,
and Copyright of the interview, and contains a brief abstract describing the interview content.

Users can select the link in the Audio File field to play the recording. For optimal playback performance, users can right-click on the link and select
"Save target as." to download and save the mp3 file to their computer for manual playback in an audio player of their choice.

Users can read the transcript of the oral history interview by selecting the link in the "Transcript" field.

VI. INTERACTIVE CHARTS

The Interactive Charts page lets users generate charts that present line of duty death statistics based on the fallen firefighters memorialized
in the IFLODD database.

To generate an interactive chart, first select a variable and then a sub-variable from the first and second drop-down menus, and then select a
different variable from the third drop-down menu. Select "Generate Chart" to view an interactive chart based on the variables you selected.

Generated charts do not display all possible sub-variables, only those with applicable data.
Explanatory text about the chart data is displayed under the generated charts.

You are encouraged to use this site for individual educational purposes only; however copy and/or reprinting of any materials and photographs without authorization is strictly prohibited. Please obtain permission by contacting fsi@illinois.edu